1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal box comprising: a box casing including terminal elements incorporated into the interior thereof; a lid element for closing an opening of the box casing; and an engaging mechanism for fixedly engaging an engaging element provided in the lid element with an engaged element provided in the box casing by pressing the lid element against the box casing.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of the terminal box as noted above is a terminal box for a solar cell module disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3014628. This terminal box comprises an engaging element provided in a lid member including a projecting piece extending in a direction of pressing the lid member, and an engaging opening formed in the projecting piece. On the other hand, an engaged element is provided in a box casing and includes a convex surface projecting from an outer surface of the box casing to allow the engaged element to fit into the engaging opening.
In fixedly engaging the engaging element with the engaged element in order to fix the lid member to the box casing, the lid member is pressed against the box casing to move the projecting piece with the projecting piece being elastically deformed so that a distal end portion of the projecting piece rides on the convex surface. Then, the projecting piece is restorably deformed as the distal end portion of the projecting piece is disengaged from the convex surface, thereby allowing the convex surface to fit into the engaging opening.
On the other hand, in releasing the fixed engagement between the engaging element and the engaged element in order to remove the lid member from the box casing, a control member is hooked between the distal end portion of the projecting piece and the box casing to deform the projecting piece toward the direction away from the box casing so that the convex surface is disengaged from the engaging opening (see Japanese Patent No. 3014628, paragraph 0029; FIG. 12).
According to the device disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3014628, it is not possible to move the lid member in the direction opposite from its pressing direction only by disengaging the engaging element form the engaged element.
Thus, when the projecting piece is deformed within an elastic limit for releasing the engagement, a further operation is required for moving the lid member in the direction opposite from its pressing direction to prevent the engaging element and the engaged element from being engaged with each other again by the restorable deformation of the projecting piece when the control member is removed. In this way, the conventional art has a drawback that the operations become complicated in removing the lid member from the box casing.
In addition, if the projecting piece is deformed beyond the elastic limit for disengaging the engaging element from the engaged element in order to prevent the engaging element and the engaged element from being engaged with other again by the restorable deformation of the projecting piece when the control member is removed, the projecting piece is plastically deformed. Thus, the conventional art has a further drawback that the lid member removed from the box casing is not reusable.
The present invention has been made having regard to the above-noted drawbacks, and its object is to provide a terminal box capable of simplifying the operations of removing the lid member from the box casing.